- Ladies, if you love your man, give him cauliflower curry
with a side of kale for dinner. It may stave off prostate cancer, according
to research released yesterday by Rutgers University.
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- Though they don't often make
the favorite menus of most men, cauliflower and kale -- along with cabbage,
broccoli, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, watercress and turnips -- contain
a chemical that is a significant cancer-preventive.
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- But add curry powder to the mix,
the researchers say, and the vegetables and spice are effective in treating
established prostate cancers, the second-leading cause of cancer death
in American men.
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- It all boils down to a pair of
crucial chemicals that "hold real potential for the treatment and
prevention of prostate cancer," the Rutgers study stated. The vegetables
contain phenethyl isothiocyanate, or PEITC, while the curry contains curcumin,
a yellow pigment found in the spice itself.
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- Both are considered phytochemicals
-- nonnutritive substances in plants that have protective, antioxidant
or anti-disease qualities.
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- "The bottom line is that
PEITC and curcumin, alone or in combination, demonstrate significant cancer-preventive
qualities in lab mice, and the combination of PEITC and curcumin could
be effective in treating established prostate cancers," said Ah-Ng
Tony Kong, the study's lead author and a professor of pharmaceutics at
Rutgers.
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- Though a half-million new cases
of prostate cancer occur in the U.S. annually, incidence and death rates
have not lessened despite decades of research for treatments or a cure.
Advanced cases of prostate cancer cells are "barely responsive"
to rigorous chemotherapy or radiation treatment, Mr. Kong said.
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- He was inspired to investigate
diet as a supplementary therapy after noting that while prostate cancer
is common in the U.S., the disease is rare in India, where plant-based
diets and curry are the norm.
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- Curry itself has prompted other
significant findings. Last year alone, the University of Texas found it
inhibited the growth of both skin cancer and breast cancer cells, while
the University of California at Los Angeles found it stopped the spread
of harmful brain plaque in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
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- Mr. Kong had previously found
convincing evidence, he said, that the two chemical compounds quelled prostate
cancer cells grown in the laboratory. He has since tested his theory on
mice injected with the cancer cells. Three times a week for a month, the
test mice then received injections of PEITC and curcumin.
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- Separately, the compounds "significantly
retarded the growth of cancerous tumors," Mr. Kong noted. "Using
PEITC and curcumin in tandem produced even stronger effects." The
research team also evaluated therapeutic potential of the compounds in
mice with advanced prostate cancer to find they "significantly reduced
tumor growth."
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- The study was published by Cancer
Research, a journal of the Philadelphia-based American Association for
Cancer Research.
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